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Four former executives of biotech pharmaceutical manufacturer Serono S.A. were acquitted on charges that they sought to bribe doctors to prescribe the company's leading medicine, Serostim, as part of a program to pump up sales. The four defendants were charged in a federal indictment in Boston in April 2005 with violating the anti-kickback statute for allegedly offering doctors an all-expense-paid trip to Cannes, France, for a medical conference in exchange for prescribing the human growth hormone that is used to treat AIDS-wasting. According to an AP story (here), the jury was out less than three hours before it returned the not guilty verdicts on all counts, after a two-and-one-half week trial. (ph)